STOMP

Student/Teen Outreach for Mental illness Prevention – S.T.O.M.P

Our STOMP program is the flagship program offered by Please Live. From Please Live’s inception, we knew we wanted to provide education to youth and young adults in a way that was easy to understand and down-to-earth.

Over the course of Please Live’s history, this education has been fine tuned to cover the basics of mental illnesses and suicide prevention, focusing on real and practical ways that students can assess their peers for signs and symptoms of a problem, how to intervene, and how to get help for themselves or a friend. Our program has also expanded to include teacher and staff training to equip adults working with youth with the skills to identify and refer at-risk students, and in addition we have included a community health fair portion which brings in local help agencies and parents into the mix.

Alexa Moody Presenting

One
Staff
Education:

We partner with existing community agencies to provide Youth Mental Health First Aid training to staff members at a school/church/venue. Youth Mental Health First Aid is an 8-hour internationally recognized evidence-based program that teaches adults how to help an adolescent who is experiencing a mental health or addictions challenge or is in crisis. This training also fully covers the requirements for Act 71 in Pennsylvania, and is eligible for several different types of continuing education units (CEUs).

TwoStudent
Education:

After the staff members have been successfully trained in YMHFA, Please Live comes in to teach the students themselves. Our presentation can be completed in as little as an hour and covers the basics for mental health and suicide prevention: common myths and facts, what is a mental illness, combating stigma, different types of mental illnesses, signs and symptoms of an illness, how a mental illness affects a person in their biophysical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions, how a mental illness can lead to suicidal thoughts, signs and symptoms of suicide, ACE model – Ask, Care, and Escort for helping a friend, and a variety of help resources customized based on venue location.

Three
Health
Fair:

After teaching the students, we assist in coordinating a community health fair that brings the helping agencies into the school or venue. This way, students can learn about the service agencies in their community in a way that feels safe and comfortable for them. This also allows parents to be part of the conversation and to seek out resources and answers they may not have known were available to them. The health fair is a collaborative event that brings together the community to focus on the needs of the students and also provides networking opportunities for the agency representatives as well as generating free publicity and referrals for the participating agencies.

Real comments from students:

“This presentation is amazing. Knowing what I know now, I know I can help my friends and myself if needed.”

“I liked learning about the different stages of mental illnesses and potential cause factors.”

“I liked how informative the presentation was. I now know what to do if a friend or loved one is thinking about suicide.”

“You really helped me. I was thinking about [suicide] and I just wanted to be gone. You helped me [to reach out and] get help.”

"I enjoyed how the stigma was brought up and how it was explained that you can’t just snap out of a mental illness."

"It was very informative. I didn’t think of mental illnesses like other diseases before but now I understand the severity of them."

Students in a classroom
Alexa Moody speaking at an event
Students at an event

Interested in Hosting Please Live?

Each school/church/venue is different, so contact us today to start a conversation so we can cater our program to your community’s needs!